January Snow

Why has my facebook exploded with angry comments about all the beautiful snow we have received the past two days? Seriously, on Tuesday I almost flipped out at every status I read about how "annoying this snow is" and "okay Utah, enough." (okay, so I didn't "almost" flip out, I did flip out...in my head and in conversations to my husband mind you. Good thing I couldn't find my camera chord until today and have had some time to calm down). 

I just want the world to know that snow in January is NORMAL. It should be snowing in January! It's supposed to happen. If you don't like it, move south for goodness sake. Why can't we just enjoy the beauty of it. Everyone gets so excited for that first snow fall and after that...poor snow...he's hated on terribly and all anyone can talk about is when they can put their flip-flops and capris on. Happens every year. I don't mind if you start complaining come April, I'll even give you March to start anticipating the drives with the windows down, the sun shining bright and kids selling lemonade on the street, but AT LEAST wait until March. 

"Can't wait till WE get to pull out our golf clubs and start playing in the sun," the weather man said the other day. Ugh, PUHLEASE. There are four seasons. Let's enjoy them. I understand the dangers of driving in the snow, sometimes even walking in the snow. The sicknesses that go around. I get it. But isn't the snow beautiful! And all the great wintery things that come with it. Hot oatmeal in the morning. Frothy hot chocolate in the afternoon. Steamy chili in the evening. Bubble baths, candles, sledding, snow fights, gorgeous Utah mountains. Definitely not as enjoyable without the snow. 

I'll stop there. I just felt the need to tell everyone that I might have been one of the few people that enjoyed the snow we received on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I wouldn't start complaining if we got more next week. There, now you know. Now I can sleep at night (just kidding! shouts the baby).

Click here for AWESOME DELICIOUS Chili recipe that I am addicted to!

Happy Snow Days!

Gift Card + Free Massage + Temple = WONDERFUL

I've decided that one of the best present that anyone could give us is a restaurant gift card. Before being married I probably would have just said to give me money because I can use it however I want. However, nowadays, if people give me money I feel the need to put it into our savings account or pay our gas bill with it. Now that's no fun for a birthday present.

When Anna moved back to PA she left us a gift card to Red Robin and ticket vouchers for the movie theater. That was when I realized that "date night" gifts are the best gifts. 

We sat there in Red Robin, enjoying burgers and fries and I didn't have to stress or feel guilty about it one bit because: I didn't have to pay for it! It was a beautiful evening.

It's probably not a surprise that when Christmas came around and A.J. sent us a gift card to Olive Garden, I was EXCITED. (Not only did I not have to pay for a date night with the boy, I LOVE OLIVE GARDEN!). Olive Garden has special meaning to us. Darin took me there for my birthday way back when in August of 2010, the night that he kissed me for the first time. We also went there for our honeymoon (thank you wedding present gift card!). Then last weekend we decided to use A.J.'s gift card in what could quite possible be our last romantic date of our lives. (Yeah right! But maybe the last one for a little while since the baby is coming so soon and that might just change some things).

           

(Check out that Olive Garden comparison. Little itty bitty newlywed Brillante and big massive almost newly mother Brillante. Identical leftovers).

Let's go back to Saturday afternoon. My friend Melissa is currently in massage therapy school and has been taking a pregnancy class. She needed someone to work on this weekend and I was MORE than happy to let her practice on me. Kind of the same idea as the gift card, anything you get to do for free seems to be MUCH more enjoyable. It was great. Thank you Melissa for choosing me to be your pregnant model.

After the massage we decided to hit up a new temple while we were up North and decided on the River Jordan temple. Beautiful temple. 

Who knows what "date night" will be like after the little guy makes his appearance. It might take a little while to figure it out, but we'll figure it out. I love my date nights with Darin and strongly believe that date nights help keep a strong marriage. Whether those date nights are going out to a restaurant and movie, going for a run and then getting a Jamba Juice Smoothie, staying home and watching old tv shows or something as simple as playing a game of chess, they're important to me and keep the spark alive in our quickly changing partnership. 

Good Morning Sunshine

Check out this beauty that I have the pleasure of waking up next to every day. 

I know, I know. H-O-T. Stand down ladies, he's all mine. 

38 Weeks

That's right. 3-8. I've been pregnant for 38 weeks. That's kind of a long time if you really think about it. Thankfully, it hasn't felt as long as I'm sure it does for those amazing women who suffer sicknesses and complications through their pregnancies. My biggest issue the past week has been numbness in my fingers/hand. It's been driving me C-R-A-Z-Y. But I keep telling myself that things could be much MUCH worst. I can handle the numbness (thank you to my everything for swelling up on me these last few weeks and pinching my nerves!)

At work, missionaries keep asking me why I'm still working and then go on to tell me that in their countries the women have to go on paid maternity leave after 6 months. Yep, it's decided, for the next baby, we're moving to Finland.

I always hoped that I'd have a cute belly that really sticks out . Not so much. I mean, it sticks out alright, but it's really been growing horizontally as of late. It's pretty wide and lately I've been feeling the baby really far into my right side. It's almost like he's trying to push his way around to my backside. I should have expected that, given the shorty pants torso that I have.

My belly button still hasn't popped out. I'm starting to think it won't and I will never look like a "real" pregnant woman. How inny can a belly button really be!?

I get incredibly hot...ALWAYS. I think the other women at church don't like me much because they turn on the heat and I stand up to turn it back off five minutes later. But seriously, you can put your coat back on, I can't take anything else off. And when I do get hot, like, really hot, everything swells even worst than it already is. Darin and I just like to look at my fingers and laugh about how round they are.

Being pregnant sure is an adventure. A pretty fun one. I only have a couple more weeks to enjoy it and enjoy I shall. 

37 weeks

37 weeks

38 weeks

Baseball Tracker

Tracking all of the temples we've been to made me want to track all the baseball stadiums we've been to as well. Two things we love and will plan our vacations around for the rest of our lives: temples and baseball. 

Together

Arthur W. Perdue--Delmarva Shorebirds (Salisbury, MD)

Medlar Field--State College Spikes (PA)

Oriole Park at Camden Yards (Baltimore, MD)

Nationals Park (Washington D.C.)

Orem Owlz

Salt Lake Bees

BYU Cougars

Brillante:

Angel Stadium of Anaheim (CA)

Chase Field--Arizona Diamondbacks (Phoenix, AZ)

Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum--Oakand A's

 

Darin:

AT&T Park--San Francisco Giants (CA)

Second Proposal

I know I know, I have wrinkly old lady hands. I've heard it before. Don't hate. 

It was time. Time for a new ring. The pearl was no longer fitting comfortably and I hated not wearing a ring at all. I felt so naked, so single, so hopelessly alone. Lost. 

That all changed last week when Darin took me out for the most romantic evening of my life, got down on his knee and pulled this beautiful shiny baby out and placed her on my finger. My first thought was, "how did you buy this?" "We can't afford this." Then it didn't matter. I loved it. 

Just kidding! The story actually went like this: 

I hated the fact that my pearly pearl didn't fit. I hated not wearing a ring and who knows how long AFTER being pregnant it will take for the pearly pearl to fit again. I got in the car. I went to the mall. I bought this ring for $8 at Icing. I was sad they didn't have any pearls in my size :(. But the diamond will do. I went to the bathroom and put it on. I'm a married woman again. 

The End.

(Click me to read the real romantic proposal story.)

Translation What?

For my senior project I have to translate part of a book and then write a theoretical analysis to go with it. My goal is to get as much of it done as I can before the baby comes. Ideally, I would love to get  all of it finished and considering that is the only thing I am doing right now, besides work and my History of Creativity class once a week, you'd think it wouldn't be that hard. WRONG. I can't concentrate. All I think about is baby. 

I hit 37 weeks yesterday (full term!) and everyone keeps saying: "it could happen anytime now." Whether he comes sooner or later, he's coming and "later" isn't even that far away (which seriously freaks me out!). Expecting a baby is different than anything else I've ever "expected" or waited for or been excited for in my life. It doesn't compare in the slightest to Christmas or birthdays or the first day of school or anything. It's in a category all on its own. 

Baby boy has been with me for the past nine months now. On the inside of me. Now it's time to meet him, on the outside of me. I mean, how different can it be right? :)

Tonight, instead of translating, I decided to finally organize and get all the "little thing" that have been laying around settled. I just can't get over opening and organizing his little socks and hats and burp clothes, etc.

 Just trying to soak in this last little bit of wondering and imagining and picturing while I "oooo" and "aaaaa" at his little corner of the room.

You Can Do It!!

Philip's Christmas present just arrived last week. He got me this pregnancy workout DVD. I was pretty excited about it when I opened it (I like trying out new workout videos almost as much as I like trying new flavors of certain foods, which is a lot in case you didn't know). Plus, I've been struggling to work out as of late because there is only so much i can do, AND the cold has become a pretty good excuse to not work out. 

There are obviously A LOT of differences between my pre-pregnancy workout DVD's and this DVD (namely, not having a bowling ball attached to your gut). 

Allow me share my favorite difference:

Jillian Micheals: "Don't stop. This is when it really counts. Don't give up now. You feel that burn, that's what's gonna make the difference. Don't you dare stop now. Push through that pain." 

Lindsay Brin: "If you need to stop, just stop. Don't push yourself. Get some water, relax and when you feel comfortable, jump back in. No pressure."

Maybe this is only funny to me, but I was cracking up during the workout today listening to Lindsay tell me to stop whenever I wanted to, to get a drink, relax for a minute and then come back. haha. Obviously I understand the reason for the difference, and I appreciated it (considering I had to stop and relax a few times), I just couldn't get Jillian yelling at me to push through the pain out of my head. I think I'm going to enjoy this. I better! How often do you get to work out with someone telling you NOT to push yourself and to stop whenever you want? That will come back soon enough so I'd better live up this pregnancy workout for as long as I can (3ish more weeks!).

Temple Tracker

Darin and I both love the temple (click here to learn more about what we do in temples). We especially love going to the temple together. It is something that we have enjoyed doing since our dating days and it hasn't changed since. Not only do we love going to the temple, we love visiting so many of the beautiful temples that surround us. These are the ones that we have visited thus far (and we hope to visit many more!)

Together:

Provo:

Bountiful:

Timpanogas:
Can't find the picture of us at Timpanogas temple! Looks like another trip up there is in store for us.

Idaho Falls:

Twin Falls:
Too cold to stop and get a picture! But I promise we were there.

Newport:

Washington D.C.:

Logan:

St. George:

Manti: 

Oquirrh Mountain:

Salt Lake City:

Me:

Buenos Aires, Argentina:

Santiago, Chile:


Kirtland:

Darin:

Boise:

South Jordan:

Fresno:

Goodbye 2012, Hello 2013

Last year was my first New Years with college friends and it was a blast. This year was even better because the Rackhams stayed in town and were able to celebrate with us as well. Can I just say that I absolutely love my friends. I'm sad that more of the besties couldn't be with us but at the same time I'm thankful for the time that I have left living so close to these girls. 

I got off work a bit late on Monday night but was able to jump right in to the party as I walked into the house to see Darin doing a Dance Dance Revolution solo. What better way to start off the party. 

We listened to some violin pieces by Kaitlin and Skylar (I know, we're crazy right?!), played our new favorite group game (a mix of charades/catch phrase), popped poppers, drank some bubbly, kissed and kissed and kissed and stayed up super late talking about the goods of 2012 and our resolutions/expectations and hopes for 2013.

Ultrasound

Smeagol???

Maxipad

   

What a fun night!

The next day was spent sleeping in ridiculously late. Not showering or even putting real clothes and makeup on. Reading, putting a second and third coat of paint on the babies dresser, more sleeping, hot chocolate, popcorn and The Fellowship of the Ring. Usually these kinds of lazy days stress me out more than I enjoy them because I hate feeling like I'm doing nothing with my life and wasting time, but yesterday, I soaked it in and loved every minute of it (Darin enjoyed parts of it, but pobrecito was in a lot of back/leg pain from a move that he helped out with earlier in the day).

Here's to an amazing 2013!